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Re: Which new raceboard to buy?

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:24 am
by wdric
Just go buy a regular production board and start racing tomorrow.

I dont think one design will ever take off with a kiteboard, who said they are talking about it anyway?
It is just assumed they are because the windsurfers had it in the Olympics, but this didn't stop other forms of windsurfers from being popular and probly not much different in price.
Do they have one design tennis rackets, snow boards and pushbikes in the Olympics?

Perhaps on other forms of craft that have a much higher development and build cost one design will have an advantage when trying to get more than a handful of people into the sport, but kite boarding is very accessible whether custom or one design.
If they make it one design for the next Olympics I bet my left testicle that board will be outdated and not used by the rest of the kite racing community before Rio has even finished.

At the end of the day to build a new shape race board and try it out aint costing anywhere near what other sail craft do so you can forget about it being a high cost in that respect.

If they go one design then the company making them will just have higher margins and more profit which negate any price advantage to the end user because they will just sell it for a little less than a custom.
An example of this would be the ML board from the thai factory, is it significantly cheaper to the retail user than a USA made one?
I bet it aint much, but it will be costing shit loads less to make, the guys on the factory floor will be getting paid Sweet FA and the guy who owns the factory and the guys who sell it will be making a lot more and the sponsored riders will be getting looked after as well, it is the way the free world works, especially when the brand is well recognised and is at the pointy end of the fleet :wink:

Re: Which new raceboard to buy?

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:10 am
by Flyboy
3 years ago I abandoned TT kiting & have used, exclusively, a small custom (4'10" x 18") directional - somewhere between a surf-board & an old-school small directional, I use this board in everything from 12 knots to 35 - flat water, chop & waves. It's set up with 3 straps & jumps, jibes, & tracks great - in short, it's a superb one-board quiver! It works well in smaller waves, but in bigger surf it can be a bit too fast & squirrely compared to a "proper" surf board. Its low end & upwind performance is decent, but obviously nothing like a dedicated race board.

I'm now considering picking up a race board - not for racing, but for general lightwind cruising & upwind treking. I notice Cabrinha is getting rid of their 2011, quad fins race boards for a low price. Would I be better placed getting the larger 183 board, or the 178, for general use? The idea of a huge board freaks me out a bit, but given that I would jump on my small directional when it gets above 15 knots, does it make more sense to getting the bigger Cabrinha (or something else)?